3 Ways to Get a Promotion at Work
Working is something that we are going to have to do.
Either we are going to work for ourselves, or we are going to work for a company.
If we are going to work for a company, we have to decide what we want out of it.
Do we want to just exist and not get fired?
Or do we want to create opportunities for ourselves?
I think both bullets are perfectly reasonable.
There are a lot of people who don’t want to make their career their number 1 priority.
They would rather create memories with family and friends, be a good parent, and travel.
For them, their job is just a vehicle to give them money.
However, this post is not for someone who wants to exist in their job.
If you want to rise up the ranks, then this post is for you.
There are 3 ways to get a promotion nowadays…
1. The Passive Path
The passive path is when a worker has been in the company for a long time.
After being in the company for a while, the worker is considered a senior.
Throughout the last 10 years in the company, plenty of people came and went.
The worker stayed.
Due to staying, the worker knows the company’s principles, how the teams function, and how the systems work.
This makes them eligible for a promotion!
For the passive path, the goal is to just not get fired.
Do a good enough job to be in the company for a while.
2. The Active Path
For this path, the worker collaborates with the manager to let them know that they are looking to get promoted.
Choose your battles wisely.
Don’t work for a company for a few months and ask for a promotion.
Prove yourself for a few years, then ask to move up.
A lot of people guess what their manager wants from them.
Stop guessing!!
Schedule a 1-on-1 with the manager and ask:
‘Hey, I want to add more value to the company so I can move up. What are some projects or tasks that I can work on?’
He responds:
‘Well, it takes a really long time to solve customer issues with our HCA system. This is creating a lot of bottlenecks. If you can find a way to reduce how long it takes to resolve customer issues, then that will help a lot.’
The worker should then ask what the ideal scenario looks like.
So, he’s not working months on a project for the manager to only be like:
‘That’s not what I meant.’
Get crystal clear.
With the active path, the manager becomes AWARE that his employee wants a promotion.
Most people come to a job to get a paycheck.
It’s a breath of fresh air for the manager when an employee wants more.
3. Passive/Active Path
Sometimes, the active path doesn’t work.
The manager just doesn’t have any extra work at the moment.
You just have to sit idle for a few.
This is what happened to me in one of my past jobs.
I was stuck in a team that did the same work all the time.
One day, I asked my manager if I could sit with another team while they were doing their deployments.
My manager said as long as it didn’t affect my work, it was fine.
I sat with the new team.
On slow days, I would ask my manager if I could do more work for the new team.
My manager said yes.
At this point, I was working for 2 completely different teams.
Mind you…
I was not getting paid any extra.
I was a salaried employee.
As a few weeks went by, one of the members of the new team asked if I wanted to sit in with a 3rd team.
This was their sister team.
I said yes.
At this point, I was doing work for 3 teams!
Before, I spent most of my workday just chilling and surfing the web.
Now I was at work… actually working.
The bad news was that I wasn’t getting paid extra for all the work I was doing.
The good news was that I was learning a lot.
As a few weeks went by, one day, a new role opened up.
Initially, my company was going to hire an external candidate.
However, after I met so many people working for 3 teams, the seniors thought:
‘Why not look into Armani? He already knows everything that we are looking for in an external candidate.’
Since I was working in a few teams, I was the first person that came to mind.
I didn’t even have to do a job interview.
They just asked if I wanted the job.
I said sure.
Just like that, I got a massive pay increase.
With this strategy, you’re eating dirt for a few weeks, to a few months, to a few years.
Then out of the blue moon, you just BOOMERANG up.
This strategy is passive because you are not directly asking for a promotion, but it’s active because you are putting in a lot of work.
If your company is big, play around with this strategy.
If you have a lot of free time, then try joining more teams and offer to do their busy work for them.
Consider Switching Companies
The final piece of advice I will give in this post is that sometimes the company you’re working for is too small.
They don’t have the budget to give a pay increase.
During moments like this, switching companies may be the smart thing to do.
Before switching so fast, do your best to work out a situation for yourself.
One of my good friends kept insisting that his company was too small to get a promotion.
However, he kept going for it…
After a few years, he went from making $58,000 to $120,000.
The small company had the budget all along.
He just needed to showcase his value before they spent their budget on him.
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